Venue and time: German Historical Institute Warsaw, 15th-17th November 2012

Hosting institutions:

* German Historical Institute Warsaw (GHI Warsaw)

* European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS)

* Institute for Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (ISP PAN)

in cooperation with the Chair for Central and Eastern European Studies of Chemnitz University of Technology

Concept and organization:

* Prof. Dr. hab. Wanda Jarząbek (ISP PAN)

* Dr. Jens Boysen (GHI Warsaw)

* Dr. Burkhard Olschowsky & Dr. Dominik Pick (ENRS)

The two decades between the crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968 and the downfall of the Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989 were characterised not only by changing trends in 'real politics' but as well by a variety of ideas and images that existed in those societies regarding the political, societal, cultural, religious and other framework systems. Increasing cross-border impressions and experiences contributed to a gradual widening of people's "horizons" and to more differentiated patterns of thinking and behaviour, as well as, accordingly, a more complex perception of other persons' points of view.

The planned conference aims to reconstruct these changes in "Images of the Other" on a national and international scale. The term of the "Other" is meant here to describe any social strata, groups or individuals perceived by a given observer as being of relevance for his/her own societal-political orientation. This could apply as well to members of their own society as to those of other nations - be it within their own alliance or across the Iron Curtain.

The processes of perception of "Others" are based on experiences and memories and it is the created images that go on to change our further phases of perception. These processes were influenced by various internal and external factors: certainly the détente policy of the 1970s, but as well changing global trends of this time, such as cultural liberalisation, the change of generation and change in values, or the establishment of the "consumers' society".

In this context, the conference is intended to address, among others, the following issues:

- What impact did the modernisation phenomena (e.g., change in values, urbanisation, spreading of education, differentiated etc.) have on the worldview of individuals and societies?

- How do people compare their own life conditions to those of other individuals or groups within their own society?

- What relation could be observed between peoples' own experiences with other countries' citizens and those specified in the state-issued guidelines regulating the officially desired "Images of Others"?

- How significant were positive, negative or neutral stereotypes - including those from before 1945 - in perception of "Others", especially coming from other nations?

- What impact did personal experiences abroad have on people's life back home and on their relationships with other society groups?

- To what extent was the perception of a common European 'destiny' during the Cold War of relevance to individual and collective identities?

- Did the common experience of life under a dictatorship create some kind of special empathy among the societies in the Soviet sphere of influence?

- In which way did the realities of dictatorships in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe influence the way their citizens were perceived in the West?

The conference is expected to show the multi-level character of the societal communication processes that shaped these images, as well as to highlight the diverse contacts established by state and non-state actors in the fields of culture, media, politics, economy, education and sports. Keywords here are self-images and alien images, auto- and heterostereotypes.

A focus will be placed on examples of cultural transfers across the borders of nations and alliances. Especially, a bottom-up approach shall be used to illustrate the social contacts and encounters that create long-lasting images and cultural patterns. Using historical remembrance terminology, that means contributions on the relationship between individual, collective and cultural memories, principally in the societies of "real socialism" but also in democratic societies.

We invite you to submit paper proposals in particular for comparative studies that cover several countries and/or long-term processes that reach beyond the 'landmark' set in 1980-81 by "Solidarity".

The paper proposals should concentrate on Central and Eastern Europe, principally the then Communist states: GDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, but as well the "old" Federal Republic of Germany and Austria. Additionally, we invite you to submit further proposals concerning relations in this region as well as with other countries in Western Europe, the Soviet Union, USA, and Canada.

Abstracts should include a summary of the topic and the planned methodology, as well as a brief biography (in total max. 1,5 pages). Please include information regarding your active and passive knowledge of foreign languages.

In recent years, numerous conference sessions and symposia have addressed the role of the senses in the genesis and reception of Renaissance art. Much of the important work to have emerged from these conversations concerns the revaluing of the visual reception of art in the period and has suggested the importance of touch, hearing, and even smell and taste in the multi-sensory experience of early modern art. Building on this rich dialogue, this session aims to explore the way the senses were evoked in devotional contexts, where questions of the validity of sensory experience were particularly contentious. We invite papers that focus especially on the ways in which the senses operated with regard to issues of narrative structure, the intersection of the senses and epistemology in sacred art, or how sensory perception and its representation was delimited by gender and viewership.

New Title -- Orthodox Russia in Crisis: Church and Nation in the Time of Troubles

ISAIAH GRUBER

ORTHODOX RUSSIA IN CRISIS: CHURCH AND NATION IN THE TIME OF TROUBLES Northern Illinois University Press, 2012 Distributed by University of Chicago Press, 300 pages | 10 halftones | 6 x 9

A pivotal period in Russian history, the Time of Troubles in the early seventeenth century has taken on new resonance in the country's post-Soviet search for new national narratives. The historical role of the Orthodox Church has emerged as a key theme in contemporary remembrances of this time-but what precisely was that role?

The first comprehensive study of the Church during the Troubles, Orthodox Russia in Crisis reconstructs this tumultuous time, offering new interpretations of familiar episodes while delving deep into the archives to uncover a much fuller picture of the era. Analyzing these sources, Isaiah Gruber argues that the business activity of monasteries played a significant role in the origins and course of the Troubles and that frequent changes in power forced Church ideologues to innovate politically, for example inventing new justifications for power to be granted to the people and to royal women. These new ideas, Gruber contends, ultimately helped bring about a new age in Russian spiritual life and a crystallization of the national mentality.